By yesterday afternoon, my allergies started getting worse. I had developed an ugly cough full of phlegm, a stuffed nose that no matter how hard I blew my nose still stayed stuffy and a general feeling of fog in my brain. And of course when I talked I sounded like an 80-year-old jazz singer with a lifetime of smoking cigarettes who also happened to have a very bad cold.
Ugh! Not the impression you want to give people you're meeting for the first time...Of course, everyone had been extremely gracious with me, but I found myself waiting to blow my nose until I went to the bathroom because it sounded so gross. The allergies were really getting in the way of feeling normal and putting the energy I need into being in a new place.
When I got back to A.'s after trying out a vegetarian Chinese restaurant (verdict: good, especially for their lunch buffet special of 8 reais) and wandering through the park and the empty university, I said to A.: "This is getting worse. I guess I should go back to the pharmacy."
"Maybe it's time to go to the doctor" she said, looking a little worried. Her friend agreed.
Of course, I hardly go to the doctor in the States. Not really my thing. But I conceded that this was probably a good time to do it. The medication the pharmacists gave me clearly wasn't doing the trick. And even if I found a netty pot approximation, that probably wouldn't be enough. In my head I told myself that I'd just deal with the costs because I needed to get better.
So right then and there, A., who is that kind of person, dropped what she was doing and went with me to a 24-hour Eye & Ear & Nose clinic. We got a ticket, waited about 20 minutes and then the doctor saw us. She was kind and straightforward and I was grateful for A. being there to help me with words I didn't know, while I sat in what felt like a dentist's chair. Truly, my Portuguese vocabularly just doesn't contain too many adjectives describing feelings of sickness.
The doctor looked at my tongue, up my nostrils and into my ears. She then pulled out a glob of wax from each ear with some sort of instrument. Ewww it was gross! A. got to see my contorted facial expressions during this somewhat painful process. "Did that really just come out of her ear?!" she asked the doctor. (Too bad I didn't bring any ear candles along, Mom, they would have been useful!). "Ah ha" I said, "How ironic. Here I am in a new country, really needing to listen hard to understand people and I've got my ears all stopped up with wax."
The doctor said that it was possible that my airplane ride here and the extreme changes in temperature and humidity had brought this on. She said though that by waiting so many days my allergies had turned into an infection that something like a netty pot couldn't help. So, she prescribed two nasal sprays (one for before bed, the other to use at least 5 times a day) and two medications (for the morning).
Damn! That's a lot of medication. And she gave us two of these from her office for free. As we left, A. said, "You must have done some good things for that doctor to be so nice and for this to go so smoothly." ("Or," I thought, "Perhaps this is an indication that I have many nice things to do.") A.'s sweet housecleaner had told me earlier in the day she was going to keep me in her prayers. A. said if all these medications worked she would be sure to tell her that the prayers did some good.
And so, today, I feel a lot better! I now sound a little more normal, and my energy level has jumped considerably. Poor A. had to deal with it my improved mood. I couldn't stop myself from chattering away all morning while I prepared daal for some friends she's having over for lunch. I am just in one of those sing-songy states of mind brought on by being able to breathe again, through BOTH nostrils, at the SAME time and by the fog in my brain starting to clear a little. Phew!
I titled my blog "Lost in the Brazilian Quotidian" because I think it's all about the small adventures, the details of daily life that you don't have to confront until you get somewhere new, and then all of a sudden nothing's obvious or simple. There are all these new systems to navigate that don't come with directions. I figure that learning the bus system will require time on my part but that it's do-able if I have a map. However, if it wasn't for the kindness of A., I'd have no clue how to begin navigating the Brazilian health care system, not even where to begin.
The fun thing is that it makes me appreciate mundane experiences a little bit more. Even a trip to the doctor in a different country can feel exotic and exciting and humbling because it's outside the zone of what I know how to do. And on another level, learning better "self-care" was part of my New Year's resolutions. I can be pretty hard on myself. So, I am figuring that part of "self-care" also involves really learning how to graciously allow others to take care of you too. It always feels so much easier to give back, but you can't really do so unless you're full in yourself first. And so it feels so beautiful to be taken care of in a new country, building up my strength so that I am in a good place to give back when I have the opportunity.
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